Rappler to hold AI and elections forum, voter empowerment workshops in Iligan City

MANILA, Philippines – Disinformation persists in the provinces across the country. What steps can local citizens take to ensure their communities are well-informed about the upcoming 2025 Philippine elections?

Rappler will head to Iligan City, Lanao del Norte, from December 8 to 9 for the last leg of this year’s #AmbagNatin roadshow series, anchored on Rappler’s call to action for the upcoming elections, themed “#AmbagNatin: Championing facts for an informed choice.”

This is part of Rappler civic engagement arm MovePH’s series of roadshows in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao to engage communities in promoting information integrity and empowering voters locally. The roadshows also aim to gather and train future Movers, Rappler’s civic engagement volunteers, to write community-driven election stories that will be amplified by Rappler.

The series — which already stopped by Iloilo City and Lipa City — features public forums and hands-on workshops, with a focus on the 2025 elections, voter empowerment, and civic engagement.

The roadshow will feature a public forum on the importance of verified information and a vibrant information landscape, especially during the elections.

During the public forum, participants will hear from Rappler journalists and local newsrooms about how information integrity can affect election outcomes. There will be a panel discussion about ways to work together to ensure voters are protected from AI-powered disinformation.

During the forum, participants will also get to interact with Rai, Rappler’s chat bot designed to relay, in conversational format, information vetted by journalists.

This public forum will be held on December 9, 2 pm to 5 pm, in Iligan City. 

*Please refresh this story page for the updated venue. 

Slots for the public forum are free, but seats are limited. All attendees will also be asked to download the Rappler Communities app, a news and community-building app that uses generative AI for journalism and civic engagement. Register here or click the button below:

Please register through the link above on or before Monday, December 2, 2024.

Be a Mover and join our workshops on civic engagement

Aside from the public forum, the #AmbagNatin roadshow will offer exclusive training on journalism for community-building through a series of hands-on, interactive workshops for interested Movers or volunteers for Rappler. 

These workshops will engage 20 local community leaders, journalists, and youth in a community dialogue on local issues, and interactive learning sessions and activities. Specifically, the workshops will run from December 7, 2 pm to 5 pm (introduction + community dialogue) and December 8, 8 am to 5 pm (exclusive workshops). 

During these sessions, participants will learn more about fact-checking, reporting on local issues, creating effective multimedia content, and utilizing social media for civic engagement.

As part of the selection process for these workshops, interested participants must pitch an election-related story from their locality and commit to cover community issues during election season for Rappler. Following the training, participants are expected to pursue stories based on their pitches, with support from Rappler.

A total of 20 local community leaders, journalists, and youth in Batangas will be selected. The criteria are as follows:

• At least 18 years old and based in Iligan City and nearby areas
• Good writing and communication skills
• Basic knowledge of short video production preferred
• Journalism or video production experience a plus
• Interested in doing community-driven journalism
• Must have a solid pitch of an election-related story from their locality (can be text story or multimedia execution). The story pitches can cover any of these: profiles of local candidates running in their city/province, stories about community issues that local candidates must address in their platforms, comparisons of platforms of key candidates in their area, among others.
• Must be willing to help Rappler cover community stories during election season. These community stories can be similar to the ones indicated above.
• Must also attend the public forum conducted during the afternoon session on December 9.

Food and snacks will be provided to those selected for the workshop.

If you’re interested in joining these workshops and becoming a Mover, please submit an application here or click the button below:

The deadline for workshop applications is on Thursday, December 5, 11:59 pm. Those applying for the workshop should also answer the form for the public forum.

Applicants will be screened by Rappler. They will all be notified about the status of their applications by December 6, 2024.

For any questions or concerns, email move.ph@rappler.com. – Rappler.com